In verse 4a the psalmist blames God for his sleeplessness; he cannot sleep because he is so upset and discouraged by God’s failure to answer his prayers. The Hebrew text has the second person form of address to God (Revised Standard Version Thou); Good News Translation uses the third person for consistency with the preceding verses. But the second person is more direct and vivid and should be retained, if possible. If it is kept, something like “You, LORD…” or “You, O God…” may be helpful.

I am so troubled is often rendered idiomatically as “I see pain” or “I smell suffering.” I cannot speak: “I don’t know what to say.”

Since his present experience provides him with no comfort, the psalmist decides to consider Israel’s past history (verse 5).

In verse 5b remember translates the verb which in the Masoretic text appears as the first word of verse 6; it seems better to take it with verse 5b, parallel with consider in verse 5a (so Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible de Jérusalem, New English Bible, New American Bible). But some translations take it with verse 6, leaving the one verb I consider in verse 5a to govern both lines of verse 5, and translate the word in verse 6a in the Masoretic text by “my song”; so An American Translation “By night I remember my song” (also Traduction œcuménique de la Bible), and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy “I remember when I used to sing at night.” New Jerusalem Bible translates “my song” as “their jibes at me,” which is rather improbable, since no enemies taunting the psalmist are referred to.

It will be noticed that in line a days is stepped up in line b to years. This follows the same pattern as number parallelism where, for example, “once” in line a will be increased to “twice” in line b. The sense of verse 5 is “I think of days gone by and even remember years of long ago” or “Not only do I remember the days of the past, but I even recall the years long ago.” In languages in which one does not remember the years, but rather the events of the years, it may be necessary to say, for example, “I remember the things that happened many years ago.”

In verse 6 Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation follow the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate I commune (with my heart); New English Bible changes the vowels of the Hebrew word to arrive at the meaning “all night long I was in deep distress.”

It is possible that the Masoretic text “I remember my song in the night with my heart” can be translated as An American Translation, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, and Biblia Dios Habla Hoy do; but the ancient versions, followed by Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and Bible en français courant, make more sense (so Briggs, Oesterley, Weiser, Anderson). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project is substantially in favor of Revised Standard Version. Dahood has “through the night I play the lyre, with my heart I commune.”

In verse 6b I meditate translates the same verb used in verse 3b. Good News Translation “I ask myself” translates “my spirit inquires”; there is no need, as Revised Standard Version search my spirit does, to prefer the versions here over the Masoretic text.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .